ATHENS - 2005

5 Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. †P. Bougia (Γ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation of numerous Middle Byzantine (11th- to 12th-century AD) silos at a depth of 3.16m below the modern road. Such storage structures abound in this area. Previous investigation on the neighbouring plot to the west had revealed an apsidal triclinium and parts of other urban villas built in the late fourth century AD and in use until the early seventh century.

Sizeable silos were found sunk into the ruined walls of rooms of a Late Roman villa, itself established over a destruction layer of an earlier Roman building of the late fourth century AD, from which is preserved a hypocaust (the support pillars of rounded terracotta tiles and the brick floor), a well, and a room for food preparation. Pottery, intact lamps, wall painting fragments and coins corroborate the historical sequence. It appears that the bath occupied the entire southern area of the plot. A series of four strong masonry bases 2m apart were found, with traces of the beginning of brick arches: plan and masonry suggest that these are blind arches, often found as niches in the changing rooms of baths in the Late Roman period.